What it takes to be a good writer?

Writing is one of the oldest professions of the world. Earlier it was believed that writing is God gifted ability and that everyone can’t be a writer. To be honest, it needs a lot of commitment to become a well versed writer and partially the people who are born writer are really good than the others who are writing with consciousness and hard effort.

So who is the good writer? The one who can talk with the reader from the paper. So in your writing use very simple language. If there is a simple word of something then don’t write an unusual difficult word in its place. Instead of saying, chances are that thunderstorm may bring rain tonight, just say it will rain tonight.

Some tips mentioned below can help you become a good writer. It is hard to become a good writer though but consistent practice and determination will keep you stand apart from the crowd.

Revise Your Grammar. Revise your grammar and learn the basic principles if you have forgotten them. Understand the syntax of writing a proper sentence. Go through all the minor things and understand the usage of words. For example when it is appropriate to write “will” or when to write ‘would’ past tense of the word ‘will’.

Avoid Clichés. A good writer will always avoid using clichés in his writing. Clichés are the sentences or phrases which are used by an author and are now widely famous throughout the world. For example, “Between the devil and the deep sea” . No doubt this is beautiful expression to describe a situation where you are stuck between two unavoidable situations. But using it again in your writing will not attract the reader. Always try to think something unique to describe the same situation. Critiques say that those writer who use clichés are the writer who don’t pay much heed to what they are writing. Be creative and make your own phrases that leave same impression on your reader.

Read Books- Many Many books Until you don’t read books of other authors you can’t grow the sphere of your own imaginations. First try to read each and every book which calls for your attention. With the pace of time you will know that what actually your genre is. Either you are fiction guy or non-fiction guy or you find more interest in science and technology books. Anything will do – just grab a book and read it. If you are looking for my recommendation. I would recommend 1984 by George Orwell, Atlas Shrugghead by Ayn Rand, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Read these books or any other you may wish to read. I hope your vision for life and depth of understanding will surely grow with every page you will turn.

Don’t just tell – Show! Don’t just tell what happened but show it your reader that how happened. Use Active verbs and hate passive sentence. Active sentence will inject life into your sentences while passive sentence will confuse your reader and remember the easiest thing for your reader is to quit reading what you have written laboriously. Consider this sentence, “She was seen by me” this is passive sentence in which I really meant to say that, “ I saw her”. Passive sentence are not only lengthy but only dull in their look. SO always use Active verbs.

Copy Some Famous Writer’s style. Yes. Read some best author’s book and copy the author. There is nothing wrong in it. You need a model or framework . An ideal to set your aim high. By copying the style of those famous authors you are giving yourself an opportunity to learn new things. Don’t worry about your own voice; you will have it in coming times with practice. Every big author had first set a model to whom he copied. You can’t understand that how well you are writing unless you have a model to compare your work with.

Write about People and Places to beat Writer-Block People often think for hours about what to write? This is called writer block. A man sitting before a monitor with Microsoft Word office file open – completely blank and hands just don’t move over the keyboard. To avoid such situation one tip is to write about people. Write about your best friend. You will find words coming out of your mind easily. You won’t have to work that hard to bring them on the paper. When you have written all about your best friends then write about the places you have visited or you want to visit.

Revise and Re-Re-Revise your work.

I myself had always believed that good sentences come out of nowhere. But in my recent reading I learned that the best sentences don’t come up in a single try. You will have to revise your work again and again to get the best sentence out. The more you will revise your work or even a sentence you will get more of it. It is just 10% probability that you will have a beautiful sentence in one-go. So you better write first and then revise your stuff. Think about how can you make your sentence more appealing. Try to replace your words which don’t satisfy you and be creative in creating your own phrases. Always aim for bringing freshness in your text.

Conclusion It a long road to walk for becoming an established writer. You will feel de-motivated many times but these are attractive temptations that you have to cross over. You don’t have to stop and keep going. Read well and then write well but on regular basis. Practice makes the man perfect! Happy writing.

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Published by: Waqar Ahmed Shar

Waqar Ahmed Shar is a freelancer, Sociologist, webmaster and Computer Operator at Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited, Karachi Pakistan.
He received his M.A Sociology from Shah Abdul Latif University. After his part-time five year career as a freelancer, he launched whrill.com where he writes on social and psychological issues. In addition to this website, he is a regular contributor to a number of online and print newspapers and an enthusiastic Lakers fan. He currently resides in Karachi, Pakistan with his wife Sidra Waqar and a son Shahzaib.
View all posts by Waqar Ahmed Shar

Lots of excellent advice here, Waqar. And yes it’s hard to keep motivated. I think it helps to identify some territory, real or imagined, or a particular issue/conflict that really stirs the emotions and drives you to explore it however you can.